


lost and found.

by slippingdown



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Brodigycest, Cute, F/M, Magical Elements, Platonic Cuddling, Sibling Incest, Soraudia, Soren has some heavy baggage, Soren's silly but, Undressing, Violent Thoughts, also Soren's smarter than he lets on, for now, oh wE GONNA FAVE FUN, tent, they searching for the broyals but its taking much longer
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-07-29 04:20:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16256546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slippingdown/pseuds/slippingdown
Summary: He flicked through those few pages for around 30 minutes. He memorised every drop of ink on that page, every line that came together to form Soren and Claudia.He had just sat them down neatly in that precious spot in his mind when Claudia ripped open the tent's flaps."You brought a tent?!" She almost squealed, a grin plastered to her face, more real and intense than she had had this whole journey."That's why your horse was so slow!"





	1. Chapter 1

Soren loved his sister, he really did. But an order was an order, and one from his father no less.

But this was his sister's life he was talking about, this wasn't a 'share your birthday cake with Claudia' or a 'let your sister play with the guard dog too' type of order.

Soren had already started thinking about it, what he'd do if he was forced to. Would he strangle her? Maybe slit her throat the moment she turned her back?

Only if she turned on him, of course.

Oh, what was he thinking, she wouldn't be turning on him. She'd simply be doing what she was told. He'd be the bad guy, the villain.

He thought over the ethics of the situation.

Whether the choice should be decided by his father or him.

Whether anyone even had the right to that choice.

Whether Claudia would do the same and if she would, could that ever make this the right thing to do.

* * *

Soren was weak.

A better royal guard wouldn't be aching from a horse ride. A better royal guard wouldn't be thinking of Callum and Ezran, praying he would never see them again. A better royal guard would have absolutely no quarrel with this.

But a better man wouldn't be giggling to jokes of a sister he knew could easily be dead in what—a few days, hours?

He was weak. He was a weak guard and a weak man.

* * *

"I'm sorry for this, Callum," Soren whispered into the campfire.

His voice was shaky. His sister was out searching for fruit to eat or meat to cook.

"I'm so sorry."

* * *

Soren had brought overnight equipment for them. Ironically he had brought it mostly for Claudia; he had thought she'd be the one to not get stuck by sleep deprivation.

He found himself yawning far too frequently. He'd bet on the tiredness not being the result of physical exertion, and more the mental strain.

God, he had never had to think this hard on something before. Soren was quite a spontaneous person when it came to—well, anything. If he could see an opportunity to do something big, he'd do it.

But this was the wrong kind of big.

Soren set up the tent. He only had the one and it was rather cramped but it would do. It was only a brother and sister after all.

Soren wondered if his muscles would burst the tent open with a flex. He chuckled at the thought.

* * *

Claudia returned an hour, maybe two, later. He could hear her footsteps on the dirt outside and her putting out the campfire. _Not the quietest mage, are we?_ he thought to himself.

He hadn't had much to do for the last while, he had just let the minutes pass slowly for some time, before getting entirely bored and retrieving a book from the bottom of his equipment satchel.

He took it everywhere, that book. It was just a few professional sketches Viren had done of him and Claudia when they were little. "It will keep your bond tight forever," he had told them. "If you ever lose each other, this book will link you."

Claudia should have a copy too, but Soren wasn't quite sure if she kept hers. She had been quite young when she was given it.

He flicked through those few pages for around 30 minutes. He memorised every drop of ink on that page, every line that came together to form Soren and Claudia.

He had just sat them down neatly in that precious spot in his brain when Claudia ripped open the tent's flaps.

"You brought a tent?!" she almost squealed, a grin plastered to her face, one more real and intense than she had had this whole journey. "That's why your horse was so slow!"

"No, no, my horse was slow 'cause my horse was behind your horse, and..." Soren whined, pointing his fingers mockingly. "Your. Horse. Is. Slow."

Claudia sighed, though not in a bad way—she just smiled and sighed. She simply started to unclip the top of her dress. She looked like she could breathe again.

"Still reading that book?" she asked.

Soren had been tracing his fingers around the lines of the page this whole time. Frankly, he wasn't even aware he was doing it. It was just something familiar to him.

"Yeah. I guess I was." Soren glanced down at their smiling faces from years ago. "Do you remember it? Viren getting these drawn of us, I mean."

"Of course! How could I forget that time we had, uhh—when we uhhhhh—yeah, I remember nothing."

Soren stared at her, a little offended if he was honest.

"Oh stop giving me the death stare, you know I don't like it!"

Soren swallowed.

"Come here." He spoke gently, probably more gently than he should have.

Claudia let her dress drop to the floor as she stepped out of it. Soren was honestly trying not to stare, if not because he was her brother then because he was a respectful man.

She tied her hair up with some worn brown string she kept with her.

"Oh quit being shy already. You've seen it all before."

Soren didn't answer her, instead he spoke softly once again. "Sit down next to me. I wanna show you something."

Claudia rolled her eyes but sat down, sliding over closer to Soren. She rested her head on his shoulder and pulled her legs in tight. "What's this secret something you need to show me then?"

"It's not a secret to you. Well, at least it shouldn't be." Soren paused for a second, gathering his thoughts. "You see, Dad—Lord Viren—gave these books to us and, well, he said they were very precious and that we can't lose them!"

Claudia caught herself rolling her eyes again. "Yeah, nice drawings, cute book, fun childhood times shared. Are we done now?"

"No." Soren sighed. "Listen, do you still have yours or not?"

"Probably."

"Yes or no, Claudia?!"

Claudia's head rose quick. "Yes, alright. Yes, I do."

"Okay, thank you."

Her eyes were worried and weighted. She looked like a lost puppy in that moment, like her owner had just gotten cross with her. And at this point Soren was willing to bet the tiredness had probably taken effect as well.

It was a cold night and Soren had a headache.

"Come here," he whispered softly a final time. His hand pushed her head down and his fingers almost retreated when he felt her hair. It was tied too tight again.

"You'll ruin it if you keep tying it that tight."

He untied the string and let her hair drop, let it breathe. And then he tied it. Expertly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed!! Not much for this ship yet so I'm happy to be the first!
> 
> For more Claudia/Soren stuff follow my Tumblr: @soraudia - https://soraudia.tumblr.com/


	2. Chapter 2

Soren woke at around 10 am. Maybe? It was honestly hard to tell anymore. He'd lost count of the hours 5 minutes after they'd left Katolis. Yet Soren embraced this sense of unknowing—he had always fancied himself to be a bit of an adventurer. 

He'd thought there'd be more adventure in the Royal Guard, if he was perfectly honest. Unfortunately for him, it was one big stuck-up organisation, filled to the brim with even more stuck-up losers. 

But he had gotten away from that world, going out on this mission. No more rules. Nothing to hold him back.

And yet there he was, asking Claudia which of these mushrooms would get him the highest.

"None of them, idiot! What kind of mushrooms did you think I was—" Claudia sighed.

Soren let out a half-hearted chuckle.

"I knew that." He didn't. "I meant like which are… the tastiest?"

"Well… none of them, they're all poisonous," Claudia brushed off casually. "But, I did get you more…" She flipped through her bag and out came a handful of items, a few pens, some bandages, a bottle of water and… "Tiny, bland-tasting berries!"

"Did you say the mushrooms were poisonous? Yeah, I'll take those, thanks."

Soren gathered the mushrooms and berries. God, that's all he'd been eating for nearly three days. Claudia had said they'd make this trip short and sweet if they worked together, but it had been anything but that. It was long and surprisingly boring, and those berries were _not fucking sweet._

"It's just a few more days, you know? I promise," Claudia said. She smiled and squished her cheeks with her fingertips. Soren felt a little better.

His armour was so heavy on him. It's not like he wasn't used to that, but it itched and his body ached. And it was cold! The armour was so cold wrapped around him. Soren did hate to complain, but he couldn't help it.

"Maybe we should take a day off. Have a little rest from searching for them, hm?" Soren posited.

"We can't keep delaying, Soren."

"Claudia, please…"

Skipping over, she quickly caught him in a headlock. "Fine. One day, Sor-bear," she grunted rather cheerfully. "I'm gonna be productive though. Maybe I'll find a lake to see if I can catch us some fish!"

Soren pouted. 

"Now, don't get picky! It's not like we're exactly spoiled for choice here," Claudia smirked.

____

The grass felt weird between his toes. It was that feeling of nature that only an adventurer would crave. Soren took in all the sounds around him, the chirping of birds and crickets mixed and played off each other, accompanied by a distinct hissing of a distressingly nearby snake. He was in awe of the utter beauty of nature.

Soren picked up his armour from the centre of the tent, where he'd dropped it earlier, and let it fall to the ground in the corner. Usually he would put far more care into placing his suit down delicately, laying them out so that no harm would come to them. 

But on this day, Soren was hungry. Soren didn't perform well hungry. He liked to pride himself on his skill and his manliness, but when it came to hunting for food when he was already hungry, you might as well have shot him, you'd get just about the same effort out of him then.

So he graciously left all of that to Claudia.

He wondered where she might be at that moment. Only a few hours had passed since she'd left, and Soren had kept himself pretty preoccupied with sleep. 

She had probably found herself a nice spot by then. Set up shop on some flat rock near a stream and laid out all her handmade materials.

God, she was amazing. Soren sometimes wondered where she got it all from. Most likely their father, Lord Viren, but… Soren would like to think that she may have been inspired by her big brother too.

A family of hard workers, they were. Soren only wished he wasn't taking it easy while thinking this.

His stomach made that certain noise that meant it was practically screaming out for a feeding.

"Okay, fine. I'll eat," he muttered under his breath.

He found the berries and mushrooms and laid them out on the grass. His stomach sank. This is all he had. He wished that the ants scuttling about would pick up the berries and return with a steak dinner. A little exchange between them, a give-and-get system—an ant-conomy, if you will.

But no, Soren was stuck with these same bland berries, again. And of course, the mushrooms he couldn't even eat.

Or could he? They couldn't have been _that_ poisonous. Maybe if Soren just washed them off a little and cooked them slightly. Maybe then they'd be edible.

And so he did. Soren lit the fire, which was quite the struggle at first, and poured some water he had retrieved from his bag over the mushrooms.

Soren poked the stick he was using as a utensil through one of them, and rested it above the fire. 

He felt as if he was back home again, roasting s'mores with Claudia and his father. They'd always get so caught up in talking to each other that before they'd even noticed, the s'mores were burnt. Soren chuckled lightly.

When each mushroom had been washed and roasted thoroughly, Soren felt it right to start eating. He took two sticks of equal length and positioned them in his hands like chopsticks, then carefully picked his first mushroom up and swiftly landed it in his open mouth.

He chewed and chewed. They weren't as bad as he had thought they'd be. The texture was rough but the taste was surprisingly rich and even a little spicy.

Or a lot spicy. A hell of a lot spicy. An _oh god, my tongue is literally going to fall off_ spicy.

Soren spat it out across the grass. Bits of chewed mushroom and saliva covered the blades of grass in front of him.

Soren decided that there might have been a possibility that eating the poisonous mushrooms was, indeed, not his best idea.

He wasn't hungry any longer. He waddled his way back to the tent and laid down. 

He didn't wake from his slumber for several hours.

 

_____

Claudia had successfully caught three fish by sunset. An impressive new high score, though zero wasn't exactly a hard record to beat.

She had conjured up a small fire on the tip of her finger as a light to guide the way back. She remembered the way better than the first time. She may or may not have gotten slightly lost that time.

Either way, it was a successful trek back to the tent. 

Claudia sighed. Fire still lit. She wondered if Soren knew he could put it out himself. She rested her neatly wrapped fish on the grass and was just about to put out the campfire when she noticed a trail of patches in the grass. It almost looked as if someone had sprinkled the land with acid.

Her face turned from curiosity to horror when she saw the half-eaten mushroom the trail led to.

She swung her arms at the tent and almost pulled it down. The flaps flung behind her. Her eyes had started to water and cheeks turned hot. 

"Soren, what the _absolute fuck_ did you do?!"

Soren moaned as his body grew hotter and hotter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahahah SUFFER.
> 
> In all seriousness, I hope you enjoy.   
> The wonderful Azdaema betaed this fic, thank you once again, Azdaema.


End file.
